


The Citizens

by kanadka



Series: have a holly jao-ly christmas [4]
Category: The Course of Empire - Eric Flint
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Unconventional Format, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:20:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanadka/pseuds/kanadka
Summary: Dit is ja meen Kiez.
Series: have a holly jao-ly christmas [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086407
Comments: 8
Kudos: 5
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	The Citizens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Athaia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Athaia/gifts).



> Alright, I'll admit I don't know whether this is completely up your alley, but you did say 'worldbuilding + other countries under Jao rule' and I just couldn't resist the temptation. :'D

"Yeah, there was someone who used to sit here with me. A whole group, actually. Gets cold in winters and there's safety in numbers. We'd be in the Bahnhof until very late. Police would come and try to kick us out, but what can they do, it's not against the law to be here, to congregate, they can't enforce it, they can only suggest we move. And we didn't want to, so we didn't.

Anyway. I don't know where most of them are now. I know some of them are dead because a Jao shot them right in front of me. It wasn't the first time I saw a dead body - these winters aren't so cold, but they're no picnic either, and drugs have ever been a problem so sometimes you'll come across some poor fellow and he's been gone an hour or so by the touch of him - but I've never seen someone fall like that, just drop to the ground lifeless. Their weapons make a _zzzt_ discharge kind of noise, you know? Two _zzzt_ s later and we were all falling in line.

I sobered up pretty quick. And so there we are, all of us volunteering for service hoping they wouldn't kill _us_ on the way, too. It seemed to me they'd kill anyone they didn't need hanging around, so we figured out pretty quickly the way to survive was to have a reason to hang around. Make one, if need be.

And I know what other people were thinking as they saw us do it, too. 'Oh, look at that, the court of miracles in session, guess those old guys aren't so sick after all.' But can you blame me? They singled out Jakub and he was no better or worse than the rest of us, same age and weight, same capabilities, same addictions, but he couldn't be understood by the lead sealion in charge. Or I guess they'd got their quota. So. There went Jakub. Man, I was ill for a week after the way they dealt with him, and for what? All he'd done was come over for work and get lost here and do the same as all the rest of us. But his German was a little less good, I guess, and he paid that price.

So now I do what they tell me to. I'm not happy about it, but I guess it beats being dead."

***

"...arts-wise, most of the clubs all got shut down. Well, some of them are still open, for facility use, I think the Jao recognise that there's value in that kind of exercise. Relieves tension, right? Berghain said that. Kit Kat told them that too, but they figured out pretty quickly that was an excuse, and now it's a weapons manufacture. Lasers, mostly. Physics stuff.

Me, I was a software startup tech. We had an app we were gonna sell - great ideas, but I never got paid. Mine had just folded when _they_ arrived. So there I was, looking for new work in the coworking studio above the old chocolates shop. And instead I get swept up in the Resistance units like everybody else. But what did we have, right? Not much, we never really trusted the army - people who didn't even get to Realschule? A boy's club. Not for me, not for anyone I know. But suddenly they were in charge and it wasn't pretty.

Imagine all the hooligans you know from the suburbs, and I'm not talking nice places like Zehlendorf, I'm talking Köpenick, I'm talking Marzahn, KaWe. Hartz 4 guys and their alt-right neighbours. Well, that kind of talk was very popular for awhile to drum up support and inflame the passions of the people - we already had a common enemy, the script was written - and ... and I'll admit it, I toed their party line because I didn't want to look like a traitor. I saw what happened to those who did.

What can I say? The Jao made sure we didn't have an internet for awhile, and there went all of my monetisable skills. I had to make it work. I had to see where the winds were blowing. So yeah, I killed a few, and some of them were our guys working for the wrong team. And when the winds changed, so did I. I'm not proud, but I'm not ashamed."

***

"The whole place is really a mess, now, not what it used to be. Was nice little houses once, nice little parks. None of that anymore, we're making shacks work for us and it's rough. Everyone I know has lost a kid - me too - and that's been hard. So no hipsters in Prenzlberg anymore, no quaint little cafes, just people trying to survive.

We've made nice with the lead office where the Friedhof once was. So, uh, things are looking up. Slowly, but looking up. Moritz makes a tidy little sum as a jinau. I'm sure Jens would've done the same if he hadn't - well. You know. In any case I don't think Jensi would blame us.

...I mean sure, if you won't report it around, it's like Schienenersatzverkehr is the new normal but we're all still remembering the U-Bahn, even though we're never getting it back. No, of course I don't like it. My god, they put up a building where we buried our dead and demolished a church for one of their damn pools. I never thought I was religious but it seems wrong. But you won't find me sticking my neck out, they'll cut it off."

***

"Do you have any idea how much _history_ we'd accumulated? How much art? The Jao didn't give a fuck about Museum Island!

Oh, I think they use the Granitschale as a reflector of some kind. I'm so _happy_ that it's been of use."

***

"Difference? I barely noticed a difference. I come today _janz weit draussen_ , I'm only here to pick up my food order. And _don't_ you cut in line, sonny, I was here first, don't think I didn't see it. When I was your age I had more respect for authority, and you'd do well to do the same."

***

"Oh, the Jao _love_ our lakes. Put a lot of salt and minerals and other shit in them, though, so swimming isn't the same. And they observe our rituals - FKK, you know? It's almost familiar. The only difference is humans aren't allowed to go when Jao are there. Which ... is pretty much all the time, actually.

I don't know why, I mean, the Ostsee is right there. I guess they figure we need closer monitoring. Well, we had more Resistance activity than up north. And the Hanse cities capitulated quick. Guess that gives them _some_ privileges. Hm. Nice work if you can get it.

I haven't been to Wannsee in years, but, ähm... I don't mind... yeah. Doesn't matter. 

...How is the old place, anyway?"

***

"Yeah, I was part of our Resistance. A lot of us artsy types were, we don't take sitting down lightly. We didn't in the past, we figured, we don't now either. And they always come for us first. Activism's always been alive and kicking and it's not hard to see that the Jao weren't going to let us do anything we wanted to do the same way we used to do it. Some changes - okay. We'd probably ignore. But they wouldn't let us have wegbier, no Weihnachtsmärkte, they wanted to enforce curfews, no clubs and bars, they suppressed any act of rebellion and they were liberal in their definition of rebellion and they went _hard_ , I mean Ostalgie-isn't-funny-anymore hard. They went after anybody doing what they called frivolity, so a Flohmarkt could stay but a wall of graffiti, a cinema, a gallery, a park, was useless. And there was only so much scrambling we could do to try and make use out of the things we wanted to keep. They blew up the island and that was pretty much the last straw for a bunch of us.

So, yeah. We were angry and we were willing to do something about it. The only problem was there were so many more of them than there were of us, so we never really got the foothold we were hoping for...

They realised we'd secured ourselves in the old Französische Straße Bahnhof - we suspected they didn't know enough about the city to figure out where the hidden parts were, and we were right, because we lasted about five months there. Five miserable, awful months. I can't tell you the stink of it. But they smoked us out when the water failed. I know the jinau like to say that it was creature comforts that did us in, but no, it was the water. I can't blame people, really. I mean, we thought we were prepared for a long haul siege, but no food and people get pretty on-edge. No water and that's death in three days. 

Then again, admitting you'd been with the Resistance was death too.

No, I didn't admit it to anyone back then, of course not. And you can't prove anything either, the Jao burned the fuck out of the records keeping. So good try selling me out."

***

"Listen, brudi, it's not all bad; if you keep your head down, you can still get a ticket to shop at KaDeWe. Sure, it's not what it used to be, but three of the floors still exist and aren't burnt."


End file.
